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Spent 3+ years with Ed Jones. Left Ed Jones to work for an independent shop...only thing is, I am dually employed. Right now I am "employed by" the independent b/d, but also work for a P&C insurance agency. So, currently, I assign over all of my commission to the bossman who pays me a fixed % of the commissions. Only thing is: there have been almost NO commissions as I have not been allowed to even leave the office to go get new clients (learning the P&C business, training others, a lot of broken promises investment client-wise, yada, yada, yada...)!! Prior to leaving Ed Jones, I was doing around $235k gross/year. But over the last 6 months - NADA...almost zilch.

So now, I am seriously considering completely cutting ties here (insurance firm), staying with the B/D and starting my own investment business outright.

My question is: In your opinion, will my B/D say, "No, we won't keep you on b/c you haven't had any production lately" or will they keep me on?

Thank you for your input - even the critical input, as I welcome it all.

You made it almost too brief for me. After reading this, I'm fairly confused about what is going on with you. How on earth did someone producing almost 20K/month go to zilch and why on earth do you not have more control over your success than you appear to have? What happened to your EDJ book...I take it you didn't move any (or at most, very little) of that?

With essentially a six month hiatus, you are way behind the eight-ball in my opinion...your book is probably scattered (or worse yet, loyal to your EDJ replacement) and your momentum is gone. You can probably show your EDJ trailing 12 and get some interest with some independents, but your best offers are dust in the wind after your six-month "vacation". Your current B/D will have some serious doubts based on what have you done for me lately, but since you are already there, they don't have a lot to lose by giving you a chance, so I'd certainly pitch that at them. Regardless of where you go, I think it's safe to say that you should leave where you are at. When you have more time, I'd be interested in hearing your assessment as to why things went so far downhill for you...maybe you should have stayed at Jones...at least you were relatively successful there!

[quote=$$$$$]If I only had the balls to go indy? How do you jump off that cliff with a non working spouse and kids????[/quote]

You take a parachute with you. Start by putting a significant chunk of your net in a money market account each month. Once you have at least six month's worth of living expenses in the bank, the cliff gets much shorter. Saving a significant part of your paycheck also gets you used to living with less temporarily.

I went six weeks without a paycheck last year (jumped in August). By the end of October of this year, I had already surpassed my best income year at the bank, so in my case at least, it didn't take a long time to get back to where I was.

As I said, it is a very long story. I dropped out of Jones because they are not that big of a company where I am (northwest U.S.). Additionally, I was going through a divorce with my wife of 10 years at the time and it could've been a jerk-reflex decision (stupid one possibly).

I was looking for more name recognition, if I was going to be working for a full-fledged firm - but I didn't want to work for a Merrill or UBS type wirehouse either. So I ended up going with this P&C/Estate Planning/Investments business. They have been around almost 10 years and have good name recognition in our community. Many of my Edward Jones clients actually did come with me and I continue to service them today - of course that is mostly from my office, as it is difficult to get out of the office.

OK...so you're with a respected firm, you transferred a good portion of your book, and you're so busy you can't get out of the office to prospect. Usually that translates to good production, so all I can guess is that you are bogged down with work that is not producing strong revenues.

You need to take a hard look at how you are spending all your time now as opposed to how you were spending your time back when you were generating close to 20K monthly. If your firm is requiring you to spend excessive amounts of time doing administrative work that puts no money in your pocket, then you need to convince them to spend your workday doing more productive things. If that is not possible, then moving on is probably in your best interest, as long as you are confident that such a move will allow you to spend your work day in a more profitable manner.

Just an update…I made the move. Fully independent now with my same B/D. In one week of independence, my revenues are 3 times what they were for the LAST SIX MONTHS with the “agency/firm”. It was a very, very, very good move. Indyone, I’d love to give more details to you, but not in such a public forum…PM me if you are still interested.

I don't understand how you are not making money in P&C. Are you on a salary?

What type of contract did you sign with your agency? If you are selling and being profitable to the agency, it may be time to sit with the owner of the agency or principal and threaten to leave if they will not re-negotiate your contract.

I don't understand how you are not making money in P&C. Are you on a salary?

What type of contract did you sign with your agency? If you are selling and being profitable to the agency, it may be time to sit with the owner of the agency or principal and threaten to leave if they will not re-negotiate your contract.

[quote=ManDate]Just an update…I made the move. Fully independent now with my same B/D. In one week of independence, my revenues are 3 times what they were for the LAST SIX MONTHS with the “agency/firm”. It was a very, very, very good move. Indyone, I’d love to give more details to you, but not in such a public forum…PM me if you are still interested.[/quote]